Reducing energy costs

Reducing energy costs and carbon emissions

Jan Rowe has made good use of the SWARM initiative at his
Gloucestershire farm where he has 180-strong dairy herd and 223
hectares of farmland, containing grass, whole crop and cereals.

He had already been thinking about installing a unit to recover
heat created in the milk-cooling process when he heard about SWARM,
so he arranged for a free farm advisory visit under Resource
Efficiency for Farms.

The resultant action plan confirmed Jan’s thinking – with the
added bonus that purchase of a heat recovery unit qualified for a
SWARM capital grant. “So we went ahead, got quotes, successfully
applied for a grant and have installed a heat recovery unit on the
two compressor units we use for milk cooling to recover heat and
transfer it to the hot water boilers in the dairy unit,” said Jan.
“Now we expect to reduce our energy costs and carbon
emissions.”

Jan also took advantage of specialist advice through a Soils for
Profit on-farm visit and the action plan identified, among other
things, the benefits to be gained by using a GPS navigation system
to spread fertiliser more accurately.

The GPS system also qualifies for a SWARM capital grant and Jan
is also taking advantage of this opportunity.

“This will improve our accuracy when fertilising the
soils – no over-application or missed areas – and should
reduce the amount of fertiliser we use. So there should be a
cost-saving in fertiliser and reduction in the environmental impact
of fertilising operations.”